So this is the first proper still we’ve seen from Cameron’s new movie ‘Avatar’. There’s a lot of backlash against cameron for Titanic, but I say fuck the haters, this is a guy who has genuinely pushed Movie technology forward and is continually striving to do interesting things with the medium. Plus he did Terminator 1, 2, AND Aliens. FUCKING ALIENS FOR FUCKS SAKE!. I’m a Cameron Fanboy end of.

I’ve read the script for Avatar (freely available if you search google) and I honestly think if he manages to avoid to much eco-preachiness and pull of his 3D/Live Action/CinExperience thing, then the movie is gonna really push the cinema experience in a new direction… and by that I mean show the way for hollywood and their attitude of “nobody goes to the cinema anymore… what shall we do?.. raise ticket prices? DONE!’. It’s a big ‘IF’ but if anyone can give it a good shot, it’s JC.

I urge you to go read the Avatar script right now.

“In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.”

I seem to remember this looked cooler when we saw really early footage like a year ago. This trailer seems like nothing but a bunch of cut-scenes from the game taped together with ectoplasm and Ernie Hudson’s dream’s. I preferred it when it looked like Gears of War with Proton Packs.

I haven’t talked about this film yet, but trust me on this, in six months it’ll be the documentary every good film nerd will be talking about. I don’t wanna get hyperbolic about it, but i’d compare it to ‘The King of Kong’ in the way I think it will really get a lot of exposure via word-of-mouth, and people blogging about what a gem of a film it is.

At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the “demi-gods of Canadian metal, ” influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, despite never hitting the big time. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.

I hadn’t seen or even heard anything about the film before I sat down at a screening at the LFF to see it, and it blew me away. The lazy-comparison critics are making is ‘It’s the real life Spinal Tap’ and the director to an extent goes out of his way to try and present it like that (showing knobs being turned up to 11, members retelling stories about the bands names before they were ‘Anvil’), but underneath that selling-to-an-audience-proposition it’s a genuinely touching film about a band (and especially the lead singer ‘Lips’ and the drummer ‘Rob Reiner’.. yeah that’s really his name) that are still trying to make it 30 years after their brief hit of fame. Still plugging away and are consistently determined to make it big again, despite everyone and everything around the band conspiring against them.

When documentarians luck-out with the characters they’re capturing on film, it really lifts the film above a straight up doc into a place where you genuinely rooting for the people to succeed/fail and hopefully realise their dreams. ‘King of Kong’ got this with Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, and ‘Anvil!’ get’s it with Lips and Rob Reiner (That’s Rob on the left of the poster, Lips.. is the naked dude)

I’m not ashamed to say I shed a tear… not just once…but TWICE during the film, and if you don’t shed a little tear.. well maybe you’re a cold hearted bastard.

Up there next to ‘The Good, the Bad and the Weird’, ‘Anvil!: The Story of Anvil’ was the best film I saw at the LFF this year. Hands down.

Check out some clips from the film here, the trailer is supposed to arrive next week, and if you see the film playing at a local filmfest, I highly recommend you seek it out.

It’s partly the graphic designer in me, partly the movie nerd and partly the obsessive child that collects everything, but I love seeing released posters, and the ones that will never see the light of day. I’m not sure if this is just a UK trend or what, but I sort of wish they would print them just so I could buy them and keep them somewhere dark. Bring them out at dinner parties. yeah maybe not.

Every1 a company I’ve only just discovered produce a lot of artwork for the UK market and do the ’show the rejected alternative versions’ thing on their website much the same as my much favourited All city media. Fascinating stuff (well… to me at least. fuck you guys if you care or not )

Check out the official uk quad for ‘The Good, The Bad and The Weird’, and the four alternative unused routes below it. So awesome. (Also, not sure if i’ve mentioned it here, but ‘TGTBATW’ is batshit badass, and will kick you in the cock when you see it, so you’d better have your eyes peeled for it when it hits the uk cinemas fuckers)

The Approved poster

Alternate 1

Alternate 2

Alternate 3

Alternate 4

Check out more posters (and the unused alternatives) on every1’s site, and scope out allcitymedia if you’ve never been there too.

I LOVE crazy obsessive nerdy movie-related web mashups like this, It falls into the same category as the guy that catalogued all the gun models they used in Heat (’The Guns of Heat‘).

I need to give Cloverfield a second watch, dug it the first time (on a huge cinema screen, amazing sound, low expectations) but I’m unsure if i’ll still like it now. Although the recent south park ‘homage’ has rekindled my interest.

I’ve missed a lot of horror news while i was away from the blog, mainly because the horror scene moves at such a fast pace, films are announced, produced and distributed in such a small time frame that things flew past me faster than …umm… your mum (?)

‘Triangle’ is the new film horror director Christopher Smith, who’s previous films ‘Severance’ and ‘Creep’ I really enjoyed. It stars Melissa George.. who is officially HAWT, but the poster and plot synopsis give me bad vibes, if only because I can see parallels with the Aja/Jack Bauer so-bad-its-just-bad mess that was ‘Mirrors’

TRIANGLE, a unique concept psycholigical-thriller that turns the genre on its head. When Jess hits a seagull on a drive to the local harbour, little does she know that it is a harrowing omen of things to come. She sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends and already things are not as they seem ” she just cant put her finger on why. Her suspicions are heightened when the yacht hits a storm and the group is forced to board a passing ocean liner to get to safety ” a ship Jess is convinced shes been on before. The ship appears deserted, the clock on board has stopped, but they are not alone Someone is intent on hunting them down, one by one. And Jess unknowingly holds the key to end the terror.

hmmmm.. i’m gonna keep an eye on this one, but seen as it’s the film seems more ‘psychological’ (read: boring) than Smith’s other movies, this is going in the ‘maybe’ pile for now.

For another example of things i’d missed…if you don’t include the advances of….your mum… I had literally no clue that 70’s Ozsploitation movie ‘Long Weekend’ has been remade, directed by the guy who did Storm Warning (excellent, under-the-radar aussie horror film) and starring Jim ‘The Passion’ Caviezel (Check the trailer below). and there’s a raft of other things i’m still playing catch-up with too.

Join the Kevin Bacon Movie Club, and Kevin will come round your house an watch the movie with you. I would really pay good money for this service. For real. Then we’d watch Tremors and Pyrates on loop.

I wonder if Kevin Bacon is good at ‘Six Degress’? you would think he would be…